Pokemon Go: 5 Necessary Improvements

Pokemon Go became a global phenomenon immediately upon release. Anyone who’s walked passed a monument or landmark that has been designated as a PokeStop can attest to its incredible popularity. But while Pokemon Go has been a massive hit with gamers around the world, the free gaming app is far from perfect. Here are 5 Pokemon Go Improvements which would make the game better.

#5. Greater balance between urban and rural areas

City-dwelling Pokemon Go players have a huge advantage over those who live in the countryside. Rare Pokemon tend to appear at sites which have been designated as monuments, and bigger cities have far more of these sites than small towns and rural areas. This is a complete reversal of the original Game Boy Pokemon titles, where cities were a place to buy supplies, while forests and other natural areas where were the majority of Pokemon could be found. Distributing more Pokemon in rural areas would go a long way to making Pokemon Go feel like a fairer game.

#4. Players who place Pokemon lures should be rewarded

Lures are one way of massively increasing the availability of Pokemon in an area. While using a lure means that you have a big chance of catching some new Pokemon, it also benefits any other Pokemon Go players who happen to be in the same area. It would be nice if those who place lures were rewarded for their generosity, perhaps with experience points being given for every time another player catches a Pokemon that was attracted to a lure placed by another player.

#3. Controlling a gym should be more beneficial

One of the most fun interactive aspects of Pokemon Go is the ability for players to take over gyms. However, once a gym has been conquered, there is little benefit to maintaining continued control over it. In fact, many Pokemon Go players have figured out that they may as well leave one of their weakest and most common Pokemon defending a gym, as there is no benefit to them in keeping a gym under their own control. If players were awarded experience points for the amount of time or the number of battles they’ve been able to defend a gym against, it would make this aspect of the game much more engaging.

#2. Special Pokemon in special places

One cool aspect of Pokemon Go’s interaction with the real world is that you can often find water Pokemon near real water sources, but this element of the game could be made much more interesting. Following a hiking trail to battle a rare Pokemon on a mountaintop, or housing totally unique Pokemon in specific landmarks and locations, would all make the exploring aspect of the game much more engaging.

#1. Fix server issues

By far the most frustrating thing about playing Pokemon Go is the risk of losing connection to a server when a player is close to capturing a rare Pokemon. This problem is a consequence of Pokemon Go’s huge success, with developers Niantic being unprepared for the huge demands players have been making of server bandwidth. Hopefully this problem will be solved in the near future, but at the moment, server issues can turn the fun experience of playing Pokemon Go into an enormous headache.

It was always likely to be a popular new app, but Pokemon Go has exceeded all expectations with how quickly people across the world have embraced it. Pokemon Go is already a massive success, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a perfect game. By listening to the gripes and issues of Pokemon Go players, the developers Niantic can hopefully build on their early success and make Pokemon Go an ever better game than it is at the moment.